Volume XWIl, Issue 7
Educating Women To Excel
March 3, 2004
ON THE
INSIDE:
World
News
Psi Chi Hosted Holocaust Researcher for
Spring Colloquium
Pase 2
Campus
N
Campus
Fe
Fashion
Column
Beauty
Column
Pase 6
Campus
Paee 7
Letter to the
Editor
Page 8
Meredith’s
Weekly
Weather
WEDNESDAY MARCH 3
Partly Ctoudy
High 65/Low 50
THURSDAY MARCH 4
Partly Cloudy
High 72/Uw 54
WmSX MARCH 5
Mostly Cloudy
High 72/Uw 52
J5ATURDAY MARCH 6
Mostly Cloudy
High 59/Low 42
SUNDAY MARCH 7
Mostly Clear
High 56/Low 36
TIFFANY ADAMS
Editor in Chief
Meredith's chapter of Psi
Chi, the National Honor
Society in Psychology, hosts a
Spring Colloquim every
spring. This year, the featured
speaker was Dr. Jerome
Rosenberg from the
University of Alabama.
Rosenberg is an Associate
Professor in the Department
of Psychology and the New
College Program.
His primary teaching and
research interests surround the
Holocaust. He delivered a
speech entitled The
Holocaust: A Psychologist's
Journey on February 19 at 4
p.m. in Ledford Hall.
Rosenberg became involved
in Holocaust Studies in 1976
when he taught a course on
ethics. The journey began
when he ordered a book enti
tled Out of the Word: An
Anthology of Holocaust
Literature.
"It was just unbelievably
emotionally drawing," said
Rosenberg about the book.
He was surprised that the
Holocaust was not covered in
his graduate experience.
There are examples of unbe
lievable brutality and enor
mous altruism. "If that does
not encompass the breadth of
human experience, I do not
know what does," said
Rosenberg.
Rosenberg’s background
and graduate training was in
behavioral psychology, which
emphasizes an understanding
of behavior based on precise
definitions Part of the goal in a
behavioral approach is to pre
dict and control behavior.
He explained that in the
beginning of his journey as a
Holocaust researcher he "did
not know how to be a psychol
ogist" but simply became a
good listener.
Rosenberg was fortunate to
have received a sabbatical
from the University of
Alabama so he could attend
conferences on Holocaust
studies. At these conferences
he met Holocaust survivors
and scholars who became
instrumental mentors for his
research.
Rosenberg mentioned one
such survivor, Lily, who
became a great mentor. "She
was a feisty, 4 foot 8, and it
gave me a sense that feistiness
was critical for survival," said
Rosenberg. However, he real
ized most survivors attributed
their survival to luck and noth
ing else, although they all had
different stories.
"In the camps very little of
what you did controlled your
environment...What kept you
alive on Monday would send
you to the gas chamber on
Wednesday," he said of the
unpredictable environment in
the con
centration
camps.
Rosenberg
discussed
the perils
of study
ing the
Holocaust
from a
psycholo
gist's per
spective.
He said
historians
are doing
very well
since the documentation of the
Holocaust is extremely thor
ough.
"The Nazis truly believed
they would win and they want
ed it documented," said
Rosenberg. He said the Nazis
were planning to create a
museum about the Holocaust
and the Jewish people.
"Being a clinical psycholo
gist, I was trained how to listen
without commentary," said
Rosenberg. Listening, he said,
was an important aspect of his
work with Holocaust sur
vivors. He spent dozens of
hours just listening to the sto
ries of the survivors.
"The Holocaust in Nazi
Germany was perfectly legal,"
said Rosenberg.
"As a psychological phe
nomenon, the Holocaust creat
ed both a mindset that most
photo 6/ Tiffany /^dams
Dr. Jerome Rosenberg.
Nazis fell very comfortable
with and also a morality. It was
a moral imperative, pul in the
framework of Nazi Germany,
to build extermination camps
and put people in gas cham
bers," he said.
Rosenberg also discussed
how the Holocaust defies the
concept of universal wrongs.
From the Holocaust, we learn
the concept of universal
wrongs does not always apply
in different situations at differ
ent times.
I'he Nazis were able to cre
ate this morality because they
described Jews as pests. They
compared Jews to rats-animals
that spread disease. Nazi prop
aganda used classical condi
tioning, a type of learning
studied by psychologists, in
advertisements by portraying
images of rats running off the
Continued on Page 2
Due to Spring Break,
there will not be an issue
of the Herald next week.
The next issue will be on
March 24.